Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Fall 1983
Abstract
Direct observation of jury decision-making is impossible without tainting the quality of the observations, and perhaps the jury's decision itself. Another reason for the difficulty attorneys have in understanding how juries will respond to their efforts is lack of experience. Because attorneys rarely serve on juries, the typical attorney cannot converse with colleagues about personal observations of how juries decide cases.
It is probably fair to say that I am one of only a few lawyers who has served on a jury. My own recollections of my service may well be incomplete, skewed, and deficient. Generalizations from my recollections must be made cautiously, since each jury is different, and, as the saying goes, "the plural of anecdote is data." Nevertheless, I am in a position to comment from a lawyer's perspective upon what occurred in the jury room in one criminal case, and I will do so.
Recommended Citation
Robert H. Jerry II,
Impressions of a Not-So-Average Juror, 7 American Journal of Trial Advocacy 141
(1983).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/facpubs/929